Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1887-02-19

or Immortal, those VINO 1eil On Tue ueiu.
Those who are gone cannot be glor'neo;
those who are living feel an honest and just
pride in the services that they have rendered
We are simply asked to commemorate oy
these monuments the honor and glory of the
State of Maine. Applause.
Mr.. Clark of Saco said: The gallant deeds
of Names patriotic sons on the bloody field
of Gettysburg so elegantly recounted oy the
distinguished gentlemen who have proceeded
me should ever be cherished with patrio &c
pride by every son AMI daughter of our State.
While other states have for many years been
making large appropriations to marx the
resting place of their noble sons. Maine has
done nothing. Let US now rise to the 0cca-
sion and make up for lost time by giving the
amount asked for by those who have given
the matter careful study. Applause ].
Mr.. Dickey of Fort Kent would like it IN
derstood whether this money was to De ap'
propriated for one monument or fifteen mon
uments-one to each regiment. II 1t was
for one monument he thought the Sl6,ooo
would get very nice one; IT II was Tor M
teen monuments, he thought the snm tor
each would be too small. The language OF
the resolve was not definite, sppropriatlng
the money for "a monument or monuments.
Mr.. Moore of Deeriug said, for the infor-
nation of the gentleman from Fort Kent,
that this field was under the management OF
the Gettysburg Memorial Association. Their
| rules require that before State can erect a
general monument it must provide suitable
monuments to mark the line of battle OF each
regiment, with two tablets, one at each flank
of the position of the troops Of that State. Ii
was the purpose Of this association to have
each State represented in that battle to erect
one historical monument for all its soldiers,
and New York and Pennsylvania are taking
such steps as are necessary to carry out that
plan, as far as they are concerned. He said
the monuments on that field would cost on an
average $1,000. Although Massachusetts
only appropriated $500 for each monument,
the veterans of that State subscribed so lber-
ally that some of their monuments cost as
high as $4,000. The soldiers of this State
would be satisfied with what they received
from the State, and would add to it whatever
was necessary, if anything. to bring the cost
of their monuments up to $1,000 at least; but
he asked whether it was right that these old
veterans should 60 down in their pockets 10
order to perpetuate the glory and honor of
the State of Maine.
Mr.. Shaw of Portland said that were this
any other question the Military Committee
might feel that they had hardly performed
their duty; but he thought it not untitting
for him to state the position of the committee
to the House at this time. That committee
was composed largely Of soldiers, some of
whom had participated in the battle of Get
tysburg, and when there came before it the
gentlemen who did, representing the intelli'
gence and the patriotism and eloquehce of
the soldier element of the State, gentlemen
must not be surprised that there arose within
the breasts of the committee the memory Of
that great and unparalleled conflict, which now
existed with them more as a dream than as
possible reality. They were carried back to
the time when the Pilgrim, planting upon
the soil of Piym0th the idea of liberty, was
first confronted by another class of men,
planting upon the soil of Virginia another
and different institution, the accursed institu-
ton of slavery. And from the two seeds
thus sown, the great conflict which, focusing
upon the battlefield of Gettysburg, WAS there
decided in measure, and a red line drawn
out in the blood of the sons of Maine, of New
Hampshire, of Massachusetts, and of other
States, over which they said neither that ac-
cursed institution or its shadow should come.
The committee, feeling as they did, gave
these gentlemen all that they asked for, be-
cause they supposed that they knew what
Aucy "dhtcu tuCmeClNSc II III tuC JuuSmSut
OF the House the committee had not reported
an appropriation sufficient, they would not
feel offended that their judgment had been
warped. Great applause.
Mr.. Wright of Paris said he was not SOL
der, but he hOnOred the soldier everyw here.
He believed in an appropriation for this pur-
pose. He believed it was the sentiment of
the State of Maine. He said that we knew
what our soldiers did in the dark days of the
rebellion. We knew the peris that had en-
countered We knew the misery that was
Inflicted by the hydra-headed monster, Rebel
lion; and while more than score of years
have gone by on the fleet wheels of time,
yet we have those in our midst that were
there. and suffered and participated in that
rebellion, and we have the children and the
widows of those who died upon those battle
fields. The deeds of these soldiers needed
not monuments; their acts stood out upon
the page of history-its brightest page. They
live in history, and their deeds, not only upon
the memorable Waterloo of the rebellion,
but upon Fredericksburg, at Shiloh, at Look
out Mountain, half way up to God, a1d upon
all those other bloody fields of the rebellion
on which Maine did her part, stand out upon
The brightest page of our country's history.
Applause.
Mr.. Warren of Buxton thought one thing
overlooked in this discussion, and that was
the fact that gallant patriotism and noble
deeds of daring we're not to be measured by
the grandeur of monument; $500 would
erect monuments there as impershable and
as honorable as larger sums.
Mr.. Harrington of Norridgewock did not
rise 20 object to the liberality of the State,
but simply to call the attention of the mem.
bers to the fact that, although this State is
nearly out of debt, this monev is raised BY
taxation, taxation of the people at home and
while it is not agreeable in this house to take
she position he did. he felt that gentlemen
ought to be satisfied after this vote was taken,
whichever way it might be, that their atten-
ton had been called to the surroundings of
the people at home. If the majority of the
members of this House believed that the
people at home felt able and willing to be
taxed to the amount of this extra appropria-
tion called for, why vote it, but he wished
gentlemen to remember, as had been stated
on the floor, that the State would be called
on in the future to appropriate more money
for other monuments. The honor of Maine
was not at stake. 1t was simply called upon
to contribute in proper. to its ability to
do so.
Mr.. Smith of Maple,on said there were
quite a number of soldiers on the floor of this
House, and he found the most of them were
modest men. They were not taught, in the
four years experience they had in the field,
to make speeches. They were drilled upda,